Being Jewish with Jonah Platt

Jews & Shoes_ Stuart Weitzman on his Legendary Shoes, Top Business Advice, & Jewish Philanthropy
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Stuart Weitzman: [00:00:00] I decided to

take

a risk, a big risk. How important is your connection to Israel to you?

In my blood.

Jonah Platt: You bring up the Hadith. Has there ever been any conversation or conflict over their position on Israel?

Stuart Weitzman: And because Jews are successful, we have to be the oppressor.

Jonah Platt: My guest today may have retired eight years ago, but you'd certainly never know it from all the work he's doing around the world to support the Jewish people.

His namesake footwear brand is globally renowned for its stylish and functional women's shoes. Adored by consumers and mega celebrities alike. And my wife, Courtney. Weekly shout out to Courtney. But even more impressive is the unbelievable impact he is making through his philanthropy. Supporting Jewish community, history, and ensuring a vibrant Jewish future.

Today, we're here to talk about Jews, shoes, and the man that keeps them moving. Please welcome the innovative Stuart Weitzman.

Stuart Weitzman: I like that Jews and shoes.

Jonah Platt: There you go. Right.

Stuart Weitzman: Somehow they came together.

Jonah Platt: Yeah. Stuart, first of all, [00:01:00] speaking of shoes and Jews, does anybody ever call you Shewart? Just you. Yes! I was hoping I'd be the first.

But if

Stuart Weitzman: you said Shuey, then it would have been a lot of people.

Jonah Platt: Really?

Stuart Weitzman: Well, Stewie, Shuey, you know.

Jonah Platt: Oh, cute. Okay. Shuert, Stewart. Shoe business. Always a family affair for you, right?

Stuart Weitzman: My dad was in it. Yeah. My brother was in it. And, um. I didn't plan to be in it. Right. I was going to Wall Street, you know, and break the bank.

Uh, but circumstances sometimes change your direction.

Jonah Platt: Were you involved at all growing up? Like going into, just, you know, see dad at work or any of that? No, no,

Stuart Weitzman: not until, I guess, after college. Because I did Decided I wanted to be in the shoe business, so I did work for my brother for a while, and then went out, uh, sort of on my own with some backers.

Jonah Platt: Okay, so until then you were doing your own thing, but I

Stuart Weitzman: was, was at the Wharton School studying finance and ready to go to Goldman Sachs and that kind of, that kind of world. Were you always into drawing and designing? Was that That was a hobby. It was not going to be a career, [00:02:00] Picasso I was not, but I loved doing it and I continued to do it and I ended up working at my hobby, that's cool.

Jonah Platt: That is very cool, that's the dream. That should

Stuart Weitzman: be everybody's goal.

Jonah Platt: Right, was it for you more about like the art, like you liked doing all kinds of different things or was it the design and you wanted to like, you know, create something?

Stuart Weitzman: I never drew a shoe, but in college, a, uh, a friend of mine said to me one day after he saw me painting the scenes for Mask and Wig, that's, um, that's like Hasty Puddings at Harvard, it's a comedy school.

Comedy group at Penn.

Jonah Platt: Short story, I, I auditioned for Mask and wig when I was a pen as an undergrad. Okay, then you

Stuart Weitzman: know what I'm talking about.

Jonah Platt: And I got in, but I ended up not doing it because I did an a cappella group instead. And I've been told I'm known as the one who got away.

Stuart Weitzman: That's good. Yeah.

Jonah Platt: Alright,

Stuart Weitzman: keep going. Yeah, so he saw, he said, you know, you draw, why don't you draw some shoes? I said, well, why do I want to do that? He said, well, my dad has a factory in Brooklyn and he's a great shoemaker. He buys his designs outside. Freelance, we call it. I said, [00:03:00] hey, I don't know, bring me his catalog, I'll look at it, see what he makes, and maybe I can make some sketches for him.

So I did. Drew 20 sketches. All women's shoes? He only made lady shoes. Okay. I brought him to his house over a holiday, uh, Sunday. With, my friend was there, of course, with his dad. And I laid him out, you know, like you would a deck of cards, maybe? Uh huh. I fanned him out, yeah. And he pulled one from the middle, he looked at it.

He said to me, I make medium price shoes. So once in a while, I will copy a high priced shoe, but I must know whose shoe it was. So who'd you copy this from? I smell that as a challenge, you know. I didn't copy it, so it was not a take back. And I said, gee, I didn't, sir. I drew this as I thought would be something that looks like what you sell now, but with a new twist.

Jonah Platt: Hmm.

Stuart Weitzman: And he put it up to the chandelier, looked at it again, and there was an outline, because when I started I drew the [00:04:00] outline and then I filled in what I thought would be a cute design. He said, ah, I can see you traced this shoe. I said, gee, I really didn't, sir, but I didn't expect to sell you anything.

I'm out here because Larry suggested it. And I said, I'm trying to put them back together, you know, and scoop them up and adios. And he tore it up. He just tore it up. Why? Threw it on the ground. Rumbled it up in a book. I looked at my friend, he looked at me, what the hell is he And, and he, and he just let us sweat for about 15 seconds.

Then he picked another one up. I'm thinking, oh my god, what's he gonna And he said to me, did you draw this one also? I said, yes I did, sir. He gave me a lesson I used my entire career. He took my sketch and he flipped it over. Put it on the table. Give me a pencil. Draw it for me again. So he had flipped it to the blank side.

And I went, you know, I did, because I had drawn it. I picked it up, looked at it, looked at the original, looked at it. I'll give you 20 bucks a sketch. What's the lesson in [00:05:00] that? The lesson is, when I have interviewed designers who show me these beautiful portfolios, I say, show me one of your favorite shoes.

And she flips to something, points to it, closed the book, and on another chair, I have a piece of paper. Draw me your favorite shoe again. I love that. And this is the truth. Of about 15 interviews, only 6 could redraw the shoe. Come on. Now I don't mind if someone uses a stylist to draw their idea. That's creativity.

But when they present it as theirs, uh uh. And I will tell you something else. Yeah. It still ticks me off. He didn't pay me for the one he tore up. Yeah, hello. He paid me, wheeled off 19 20 bills, 380 bucks. I sold him about 3, 000 worth of sketches that senior year. My tuition, for anyone who's [00:06:00] listening that's at college now, Yeah.

was 1, 740 at the Wharton School. Wow. And now, Times have changed. Now it's 85, 000, you know. So I never told my dad. I was the king of the campus. I would bring it in rock groups for parties. I had so much cash coming in. Wow. It was great, but I loved it. And I thought, wow, this is, you can make money. It was an hour and a half work for 380.

Today it would be 2, 000 maybe.

Jonah Platt: And you didn't feel exploited at all? He's about to take these designs and run, you're not getting royalty or No, you sell

Stuart Weitzman: them. I mean, I didn't, I was no established designer. There are designers who maybe get a fee per pair. I was happy to sell the sketches. But what sold me on entering this industry and giving up Wall Street That summer, on 5th Avenue, you probably know where Bergdorf Goodman is.

Of course. Across the street right now is Bulgari. Okay. It used to be the I. Miller shoe store. The best, highest grade shoe store in New York City. And I'm walking down 5th Avenue, and I see a [00:07:00] shoe that looks like something, well, big bow pump with fluffy snake and leather bow. I pushed my nose up against the window to see the label in the shoe.

It was the name of the company I sold my sketches to. He made that shoe and he sold it to the best store in New York. I went in and asked about it. They told me they had just placed a reorder.

Jonah Platt: That's validation right there. I

Stuart Weitzman: canceled Wall Street and found a shoe job to learn the trade and that's where it started.

Jonah Platt: When you say found a shoe job, did you go with your family or you went and did something else? No,

Stuart Weitzman: I knew. That I wanted to make a luxury shoe. Quality shoe. I did what a kid would do if he wants to go to college. I researched different companies. And I found one that was making the best shoe for its price in America.

I said, that's the kind of company I want to work for. I'll learn a lot from them because they're doing what I hope to do in five years. And I went to work for them.

Jonah Platt: That's awesome. And I, I [00:08:00] believe I've, I've read something you said to the effect of Don't start your own company right away. You

Stuart Weitzman: know what I learned in those five years?

Yeah, and it wasn't

Jonah Platt: your money on the line.

Stuart Weitzman: And all the mistakes we made that didn't cost me, but I learned from them. And the customers I met, and the tanneries I met for the leather, and the accessory manufacturers. Right. I even took three people with me when I started. Three people that I had worked with now for four years already.

Four to five years. You can't find that. that quickly. It can take you ten years to find three great people.

Jonah Platt: 1986, you start Stuart Weitzman.

Stuart Weitzman: Yeah.

Jonah Platt: Bold move. You're putting your name on it. This is my thing. I'm ready to go.

Stuart Weitzman: It was. It wasn't bold. I had, as I said, I had people to join me. Mm hmm. I had saved some money.

I had been doing it well for them. So I just said It's your time. My time.

Jonah Platt: What, what happens that really jump starts Stuart Weitzman in its upward trajectory?

Stuart Weitzman: I got lucky.

Jonah Platt: It always takes a little bit of luck somewhere. Yeah,

Stuart Weitzman: [00:09:00] but you know, if you don't buy the lottery ticket, can you win the lottery? Right. I bought the lottery ticket.

I decided to take a risk, a big risk. I had, I took a third of my capital that I had saved in those six years that I was using to start a company. And I took a third of it and I had built for me a mini shoe factory that would just make one pair at a time, not mass production. Okay. And I did that because I noticed.

On the red carpet, in all those events, everyone had a custom made dress, but the actresses were overlapping in their

Jonah Platt: footwear.

Stuart Weitzman: The stylist would go to a store, buy it to go with the dress, and they didn't pay attention if some other stylist bought the same stuff. I thought, if I can do for footwear what Valentino and Armani were doing for dresses, maybe I found my niche.

So I needed this factory to make one of a kind shoes. And the first season, I [00:10:00] called the stylist, I met at the previous job, which is where that benefit came in. And I said, I'm going to be doing this, uh, if you ever get a client, think of me. She said, oh, I just signed up Aretha Franklin.

Jonah Platt: Oh yeah, I heard of her.

Stuart Weitzman: Oh yeah? I said, uh, whoa. I said, I'd love to show her some designs to go with her outfit. She sent me a sketch of the dress. I sent her four sketches. They picked one. I made the shoe. And she decided she's going to wear it to the Grammys. I said, you know, they're not going to ask her about her shoes on the red carpet.

They never do. Who's jewelry? Who did your hair? Of course the dress. Forget it. Shoes are hidden under the dress so they don't want to pay attention. I said, so as a favor, since I'm making you this custom shoe, ask her to say, after they ask about the dress and before they move on, Oh, and by the way, Stuart Weitzman, how about that?

She's well, you know, she's up for the Grammy. She's got a lot to worry about, but I'll mention it to her. The award comes, the ceremony's on, and she wins. [00:11:00] She wins. I didn't know she's going to win. She's in front of 30 million people. She's got the trophy in her hand. And she takes off her shoes and holds them in the other hand like this, with the label facing out.

And she said, after she thanked her writer, her mother, you know what they do, right? And I also want to thank Stuart Weitzman for making me these beautiful and oh so comfortable shoes. 30 million people. Within a month. What a

Jonah Platt: price on that kind of advertising. Within

Stuart Weitzman: a month. There wasn't a stylist in Hollywood that didn't call me.

And before I'm selling shoes to the public, I am now the shoemaker to the stars. That's what launched my career. That is unbelievable. It was lucky, but I bought the ticket. Right. And once you have that crowd, That's it. It's giving credibility, not by advertising. Remember, these are their choices, which is different than buying an ad.

This is even better. Of course. Uh, credibility for it. Once [00:12:00] you have that, the image of the brand is higher. Then the price I put on it, because traditionally, the higher the price, the higher the image. And I was not making shoes in the stratosphere. I was making entry point luxury, let's say.

Jonah Platt: Right, which is exactly what my wife said to me when I told her I was interviewing you.

She was like, tell Stuart I love him, and his Shoes are like so affordable for what they are. They're not like these crazy stratospheric prices.

Stuart Weitzman: Well, but having the celebrities behind me gave credibility.

Jonah Platt: I love that story.

Stuart Weitzman: And I made enough money to do a lot of wonderful things for the rest of the world.

Which

Jonah Platt: we'll certainly get into. But first I have to ask the most important question of this interview. At what point did you cross paths with my grandfather, of blessed memory, Howard Platt,

Stuart Weitzman: who Did you know Howard?

Jonah Platt: Did I know? Oh, yes, of course. I knew him So he was

Stuart Weitzman: alive while you were growing up? Oh, yes.

Jonah Platt: He, I mean, he died during COVID. So I, my, he

Stuart Weitzman: died from COVID?

Jonah Platt: Not from, but like during that time.

Stuart Weitzman: He was a [00:13:00] wonderful guy. Um, of course, a mentor kind of guy to me. I was like 27 years old. And he was my first independent customer, as opposed to Macy's or Dillard's or Bloomingdale's. Was

Jonah Platt: this when he was with U.

S. Shoe? No,

Stuart Weitzman: Han Shoe Company. Han Shoe Company, that's right. And he ran, he was the head honcho there, and, uh, he took a liking to me. I remember he said to his buyer, After he reviewed the line and showed what he liked, he says,

Jonah Platt: I'd

Stuart Weitzman: give him an order. He's a nice Jewish kid trying hard. It's just what he said to him.

Jonah Platt: I believe that. That's what he said.

Stuart Weitzman: Then I got an order and I was selling within three seasons, 11 stores. He was a big account. That's awesome. And paid the bills. And because of his range of location, other little stores came to me, noticed me, and said, Oh, I saw your shoes at Han. Maybe they were 30, 40 miles away in another town.

He helped me start my business. I love that. I [00:14:00] told that to your mom when I first met her.

Jonah Platt: That's very special. The only two people whose answering machines I've ever gotten that say, leave your name in shoe size are you and my grandfather.

Stuart Weitzman: Did he say that too? Always.

Jonah Platt: Yeah, for, for years it was always. I have

Stuart Weitzman: a list of over a hundred young ladies.

I know their shoe size. Yeah, I would imagine.

Jonah Platt: You know, I feel like most people in my audience probably don't know this. My grandfather started as a department store shoe salesman. and then worked his way up, and he's running Han, and then he was running, uh, U. S. Shoe, that owned a bunch of retail stores. I love the, that our family paths crossed in that way.

Something else you did is you moved your production to Spain.

Stuart Weitzman: The American shoe industry was dying. It didn't take

Jonah Platt: long.

Stuart Weitzman: In

Jonah Platt: five years, it was over. How much did you know about the Jewish history of Spain when you started spending time there?

Stuart Weitzman: A fair amount. I read Netanyahu's book about the Inquisition, his brother's book, the fellow who was killed in, uh, Uganda, in that raid.

Truthfully, I don't think I met a non Jewish [00:15:00] person growing up. I grew up in a synagogue of a city. Okay. I didn't really attach and get involved in the community because it was always there. And I went to Wharton. Which they called the Juniversity of Pennsylvania. It was our nickname when I went to 42 percent of the whole university.

It's looking different now, but we'll get into that. But then I married a southern girl, a wonderful gal who, who was one of a few kids in her high school that was Jewish. And she taught me the heritage, really, and the love for it. We went to Israel, bought mitzvahs of our daughter there, and I just got, started to get involved.

She, in particular, who had more time, of course, than me. and became president of this, involved in that, and all the, you name the organization, she's had a few years at least with it. I became very, very proud of where I came from. I learned more when I took my two kids to Amsterdam. I wanted them to see the Anne Frank House, right?

They wanted to see the red light district, but that had to come [00:16:00] after. Yeah. So we went to Anne Frank's house. I wanted them to have that heritage. And then we went to Oslo. In Oslo is the Nobel Prize Museum. Mm hmm. No, I'm sorry. It's in Stockholm. Okay. It was founded by a Norwegian, Alfred Nobel, but he op put it in Sweden to keep the family politics apart from it.

Okay. Good idea. And I remember taking her to the Jewish nation, as it was called. 32 percent of all Americans who won Nobel Prizes were Jewish. Now, I knew that, and I wanted them to know that. If I said it, it goes in here and out the other ear. Right. But for them to read it, and I think 23 of all prizes.

It's like 22

Jonah Platt: percent or something. We just had one of them on this show, Dr. Drew Weissman.

Stuart Weitzman: Yeah, it became a big part of my life. And I began to give talks about, um, why. Jewish culture and heritage is so important. Even if you [00:17:00] think man created God, doesn't get in the way of being who we are and Jewish and what we can be proud of.

I mean, my God, the seven companies in Hollywood, all Jewish founders. Broadway. Can I ask you a question? Yeah, of course. What percentage of Broadway musicals do you think have had a Jewish playwright? Or lyricist.

Jonah Platt: Or?

Stuart Weitzman: One or the other.

Jonah Platt: It's gotta be something like 85 percent. Try

Stuart Weitzman: 97.

Jonah Platt: Oh my gosh, 97.

Stuart Weitzman: I did a, a documentary for public television that they still run called, uh, The Broadway Musical, A Jewish Legacy.

It's a wonderful story about, goes back from Berlin and up to today, up to Mokomorlin, which is Jewish writers. And that made me proud.

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: It really did. It was quite exciting. I found an essay by Mark Twain.

Jonah Platt: We're

Stuart Weitzman: talking 150 years ago. And in [00:18:00] it, Mark Twain says, in spite of their infinitesimal size of population, and the pressures they've been under by their surrounding citizens, the Jews have accomplished more than nations of a hundred million.

That was a hundred and fifty years ago. Now, I think of it as, I think of today's, you know, from Hollywood on up, that's what, and Einstein, that's what, and maybe the kids today are thinking of Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin, and

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: So my ending line is You're the ones to make sure that your children have that kind of success and heritage to fall back on.

And it goes back before Mark Twain, no doubt, but he actually wrote a whole essay about it.

Jonah Platt: Wow.

Stuart Weitzman: Who would have ever thought

Jonah Platt: back then? He was a smart guy. That's amazing. What do you think it is about hooking into this [00:19:00] heritage that, you know, felt like such a natural source of pride for you, where it isn't for everybody?

Stuart Weitzman: Well, they don't know. They don't know. I just spoke at Smith College, and there were four Jewish, uh, young women who were in this one on one kind of conference I held after my talk. And I asked them, have you ever read the Hamas Charter? What's that?

Jonah Platt: Hmm.

Stuart Weitzman: And that's probably 90 percent or more of the Jewish population.

Yeah. If they could read, that's, by the way, the Constitution of the Palestinian Hamas. Authority. I've read it. They may be hiding behind a tree. The tree yells out. There's a Jew behind me. Come get me Don't go to peace conferences. That's a western scam We have a jihadist Requirement from generation to generation is to kill them all, and when we're done with them, the Christians.

Mm hmm. And then they [00:20:00] feel sorry, you know, for what's going on, and of course you can have empathy for all people who get killed in any war, but they have no idea about what a country like Israel is up against.

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: You have assassins at their door basically forever.

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: Because those kind of ideologies you can't erase.

Jonah Platt: No.

Stuart Weitzman: How many years did it take for the Catholic Church to accept us as a fine civilization? 500 years. Muslims could take,

Jonah Platt: like

Stuart Weitzman: they say, if it's a thousand years, we're going to do more October 7th. Right. And Jewish people just don't know about that. They don't know the PLO charter either, which is the same thing.

Arafat promised to change it. He never had a vote on it.

Jonah Platt: A lot of things he said he was going to do and didn't do, huh? Yeah, and he

Stuart Weitzman: won the Nobel Peace Prize. They're just

Jonah Platt: giving him out. Getting back to Spain, which is how we started down this whole road, I read in a Jerusalem Post article that you were [00:21:00] surprised at how little Spain knows of its own Jewish history.

No, they

Stuart Weitzman: don't. They never taught it. I remember when I, I owned a factory 11, but the first one I said to the partner's son, Have they taught you about Torquemada in school? And he said, in school? You mean the bar at the end of the road here? Not only did he not know who the heck Torquemada was, he thought they named the bar after him.

Wow. That's shocking. They just named it as the chief inquisitor. A fine, upstanding person in the church is in their mind. They don't know what the hell he did and how responsible he was for the Inquisition. It's not, it wasn't taught. And now I'm, I'm behind building a new museum there to educate them.

Jonah Platt: Let's get into that. Is that a

Stuart Weitzman: segue I just led you into? In case you weren't aware of it. Speaking

Jonah Platt: of. So you are on the board of trustees of this new Hispanic [00:22:00] Jewish museum. Hispano Judeo. Hispano Judeo. He's gonna be in Madrid? In

Stuart Weitzman: Madrid.

Jonah Platt: How did you get involved, and what's the approach of that museum?

Like, what are you trying to accomplish there?

Stuart Weitzman: Okay. Uh, David Hatchwell, president of the Madrid Jewish community. Um, and his father was a big deal in the Jewish world before him. I met him at a, uh, conference of presidents, which is a Jewish, uh, get together. Presidents of Jewish organizations. My mom's been there.

Yep. And he said, I have an idea. We're now accepting in Spain, he's a Spanish citizen, any Sephardic Jew as an automatic citizen. The king and parliament has passed a law giving that citizenship to anyone who can show a quarter heritage of Sephardic relatives. And we've already got over 10, 000 who've returned.

They have to live there, become a citizen automatically. Now it's over 30, 000, mostly South [00:23:00] Americans. I feel that there's A rebirth happening, because we're not talking about taxi drivers coming back to Spain. These are business people, professors, cultured. Wow. He said, I'd like to do a museum. I said, what does it take, aside from money?

Because there's politics here. He said, we need a building from the state. But the state is the one who created this law, because they want to bring the Jewish people back for tourism and for the culture of it. And I think that they would be open to it. And we met with the mayor of Madrid and other places, and Madrid was open to the idea.

It took three years of politics. But they approved it last year, and we're now in construction of the museum. And the goal of the museum, of course we had to present a plan, it will have classes there for, uh, students from 8th grade on up through high school. Cool. On their history [00:24:00] and the Jewish culture.

And I learned things, for example, the cabinet of Isabella, she ran the show, Ferdinand didn't, she ran the show. Her cabinet had ten ministers, seven were Jewish. That's how high the Jewish population reached in society. It was about 20%.

Jonah Platt: Until they weren't.

Stuart Weitzman: Until they weren't. Yeah, well, half left. The other half were forced to take Catholic names, become Catholic, and, uh, and they, those with certain interests stayed for that reason.

Where were they going to go? But others just took the shot and went. And that's where the diaspora all around Northern Europe, Holland, et cetera, happened. A lot of them went with Columbus. On his trips back to, to America, founded the colonies in the Carolinas and Charleston, the first one, and Savannah, and engaged in financing the revolution with, um, the Levi family and others.

So, um. that history we're talking about, and it's quite exciting, so I'm learning it as, [00:25:00] as we're planning our programs in this university.

Jonah Platt: Are you familiar with the work of Dara Horn, the writer?

Stuart Weitzman: Yes.

Jonah Platt: I'm having her on the show. Oh, wow. She talks about, you know, the failings of many Holocaust museums, and how they This is not a Holocaust museum.

Oh, I know, of course, but how they sort of don't illustrate the, the continuum of Jewish life and persecution. So there's no pattern recognition there. It feels like here's this random thing that happened, and then everybody was like And they

Stuart Weitzman: show the same exhibition, and it's, it's

Jonah Platt: How truthful is this museum going to be about, you know, the, the many ways in which the Jews were really, you know, persecuted and be.

Stuart Weitzman: But not in the classes of the young kids. Not for this. Okay. Oh, yeah. They will be, and there'll be plenty of lectures and exhibitions. We have, um, the Catholic Church has agreed to loan us, not give us, [00:26:00] loan us, Jewish artifacts that were used by the conversos.

Jonah Platt: Do you know

Stuart Weitzman: what they were? Oh, the ones who

Jonah Platt: did it, stayed Jewish in secret.

Stuart Weitzman: In secret, right. First they were conversos, then they did it in secret, and they were the ones who were burned at the stake in the Inquisition. If you didn't do, continue your Judaism, they didn't bother you. But there were many that continued it in secret, in rooms, in secret rooms, and candles on Friday night.

Whatever traditions they could hang on to. So they're gonna loan us Jewish artifacts that they confiscated after the Jews were killed. And they're also gonna give us The machinery that was created to torture the Jews.

Jonah Platt: Wow.

Stuart Weitzman: Because the goal was to get every Jew they found practicing Judaism, every Catholic they found still practicing his Judaism, to give names of others.

And if you look at some of the things they invented, picture the telephone [00:27:00] booth, the old fashioned telephone booth, with one foot spikes on every wall. It's an iron maiden, right? Yeah, and they close in on you. And they have this Big wheel that they call the rack the rack and they put you on on your back.

Jonah Platt: Mm

Stuart Weitzman: hmm and then Narrowed it narrowed it as your back got a little bit Smaller, and it cracked and, you know, paralyzed you, but didn't kill you, and for who knows, 24 hours or whatever. They had a stretching, we, I saw these, a stretching machine. Stretched the body 12 inch, I saw one that stretched the body 12 inches before it actually split.

This machinery Is, um, it'll be on display, you know. And will

Jonah Platt: they explore, discuss the, the actual, the flourishing of the Jewish community under the Moors? It's all Not the Catholics. It's all

Stuart Weitzman: us. So we're gonna have all of that and great Jewish leaders that

Jonah Platt: I think a lot of people probably don't know that, that like, the time of great prosperity for the Jews was 700 years.

The Golden Age was under the Muslims.

Stuart Weitzman: The [00:28:00] Muslims lost the war. So they left. Right. And at the same time, Isabella, uh, Torquemada convinced Isabella, the Muslims are leaving because we just beat them. Let's get rid of the Jews at the

Jonah Platt: same time. We don't need them to finance the war anymore. No, and we don't need them to

Stuart Weitzman: influence our children.

I mean, they had, there are stories of. Housemaids, baptizing children of their Jewish, uh, owners they were working for. And once they're baptized, they have to leave the Jewish house. So they would steal the children that way and raise them in Catholic families.

Jonah Platt: When is it supposed to open?

Stuart Weitzman: Next March.

Jonah Platt: Alright, so plenty of trips to Spain, March 26. So let's get into more of your philanthropy. So we've just started touching it a little bit. As much as you're a role model for your business acumen, you really are a role model as a philanthropist, truly, and you do it in such a Jewish way, and it's just, it's, I think it's a great, really, truly a great role model for anybody looking at, What they should do if they have the opportunity to give away money in a [00:29:00] meaningful way.

Stuart Weitzman: Well, listen, let me tell you something. What am I going to do with it?

Jonah Platt: Well, a lot of people buy 15 yachts on a private island, and you're not, at all.

Stuart Weitzman: A lot of people don't do that. Some of them do. They make noise who do that. But I have asked friends of mine, much, much wealthier than I, What are you going to do with your money?

Jonah Platt: And

Stuart Weitzman: they don't know. If my check to the funeral, Paul, doesn't bounce, you know, I haven't done a good job giving away my money. He can't take it with you. I never saw you all being pulled by a hearse, have you?

Jonah Platt: Right. Okay. That's right. We're going to get into a lot of the different things you've done with your philanthropy, but one is you've created a number of meaningful initiatives to bring business opportunity to others.

Can you talk about one or two of your favorite initiatives or contests you guys have run? I do visit. About

Stuart Weitzman: 25 universities. Every year. Mm hmm. And I started that a little bit before I sold out, when I had to stay a year or two to, [00:30:00] you know, show them what to do. But extensively since, this is my act two.

And when I go to these schools, I do meet between six and ten or twelve of them. for one on one sessions. Cool. I'm not trying to be, you know, uh, DEI directed here, but if there are Jewish students there, I, I hang on to them. They'll relate to me. Yeah. Um, but others as well. Sure. And I, uh, they, they're the ones who want to meet me one on one.

It's not by chance. They've given a good reason to the dean or provost why he'd like to spend a few hours with Stuart. And they get selected. And usually because they have a startup or an idea. And I help them get in business, and I teach them the many truisms of entrepreneurship. Because there are many that if you follow them, it's hard to go, go wrong.

It really is. And I feel proud about that. There's, there's a guy who He wanted to create a dance shoe. And the reason he [00:31:00] wanted to create, he was at Wharton. He dances, ballroom dancing. He says, and the shoes are lousy. I said, what's wrong with them? He says, they're too damn stiff. And we're moving, we need the agility.

And they won't let us wear sneakers. So, um, I found him a factory. I showed him my marketing tools. I said, You will need to have someone or some organization that you can hang your hat on. You can't do it alone. And you are not famous.

Jonah Platt: Mm hmm.

Stuart Weitzman: Like, I had Aretha, right? Right. Or Jennifer Aniston now, Kate Middleton, Beyoncé.

I knew about that world, and he went after Dancing with the Stars. But I told him, I did not try to sell Bergdorf Goodman until I knew my shoe could sit on the same table with Manolo

Jonah Platt: Blahnik. Mm hmm.

Stuart Weitzman: I'm selling stores really like Han and Independent Shoe Stores where, [00:32:00] where Lou Boutin and Jimmy Choo is not present

Jonah Platt: to

Stuart Weitzman: compare.

And when I felt I was right, then I went after that level and he invented, he was a creative guy, he invented a dance shoe where the sole is in the fore part

Jonah Platt: and the heel,

Stuart Weitzman: and the Arch area has no soul and it's totally flexible and it allows for all the moves that these dancers make if you ever watch that show.

Yeah, my wife's a

Jonah Platt: professional dancer.

Stuart Weitzman: Well, maybe she uses Fuego Shoes.

Jonah Platt: I'm sure she's heard of

Stuart Weitzman: them. It's the name of the company. He's doing 20 million dollars third year, third year in business. Amazing.

Jonah Platt: Can you share one or two of those truisms that you mentioned that everybody should stick by that are top of mind for you?

Stuart Weitzman: I'm going to remind you of the first one I mentioned. I don't think I named it. Uh, when I built that factory, took the risk to build that factory using money I had planned for my company. That's risk. Risk is one of the great truisms, right? It ain't a four letter word. [00:33:00] Know it. It looks like it is, but it's not.

It's your best friend. And how can I, you know, make it even more impressive? Think of Andy Warhol. Okay. He was my generation, not yours, but everybody knows Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol. Was ostracized his art was not considered art He was trying to shake up the art world. They didn't want any part of he couldn't get in galleries He had to do commercial stuff to make a living, right?

But he took that risk to stick with it and not worry about what they thought he believed he was coming up with something The public would love and was new. You know, a few months ago, his Marilyn? Yeah. Sold for 195 million. There has not been a painting that's ever sold for that except the Mona Lisa. You have to take risks.

That's truism number one. Just to cut to the chase, not go through so many of them, I love imagination. I think in anything you do, imagination wins the day. And the [00:34:00] truth is, You and I and everybody we know does not have the imagination we had when we were six years old. We went to school. We wanted to act like our friends.

We wanted to fit in. We're following rules. Textbooks. We lose it. I did learn that mantras and stories help remind you to do things a certain way, and I love this story that reminded me every time I had to do something creative. And imagine, imaginative. So you just think of this little girl. She's like six years old.

She's in kindergarten. Maybe she's five years old. My son

Jonah Platt: is almost six in kindergarten.

Stuart Weitzman: But this little girl was not a happy camper. Every day she'd sit in the back, her mind, her eyes seemed to be elsewhere, except one day a week they had drawing class. And when they had drawing class, she's got the pencil and she's got the pad and she doesn't lift her head up with a big smile on her face.

And the teacher went over to her and said, Julie, Julie, what is that you're drawing today? Oh, she said, [00:35:00] I'm drawing a picture of God. Oh, but Julie, honey, none of us know what God looks like. She looked up at the teacher and said, You will in a minute. I want to have that imagination. And we really did. And the people who worked for me learned how to think that way.

So imagination is a truism you need in life, career, and business.

Jonah Platt: I love it. Can

Stuart Weitzman: I give you one more? I

Jonah Platt: would love it. Because this

Stuart Weitzman: is critical.

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: You cannot do it alone.

Jonah Platt: That's for sure.

Stuart Weitzman: You can't. You cannot be the best at every aspect of your life or your business. You can't be. There are others that can do certain things better than you.

No doubt. Find them.

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: And don't skimp. Go for the best of the best because the prestige of having them with you. will pay for itself. You can't imagine how many times over. That's why I always went for Giselle and Kate Moss and Gigi Hadid Mario [00:36:00] Testino, the photographer, Zaha Hadid, who designed, great architect, world renowned, signed stores for me.

Those kind of people gave me something. Well, am I gonna design a store that the world's gonna say, wow, no. But Zaha did. Or, of course, I can't look In a shoe, like Kate Moss would look, so. So I always went for the best, because you can't do it alone.

Jonah Platt: You bring up the Hadids, I was gonna ask, has there ever been any conversation or conflict over their Position on Israel.

Stuart Weitzman: I retired before OC, way before October 7th. Mm-hmm . So I never ever got involved in that. I hired Gigi, I got her sister for free because they had the same shoe, shoe size . We, we'd said Gigi's six pair and she'd call up and say, my sister took four of my shoes, can I get 'em again? So we got Bella running around and I we got both for the price of one.

No, I ne never. Never did. And we [00:37:00] used Gigi for charities and for our ads and she became very friendly with people in our, in our company. Her father's Palestinian.

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: I get it. I, I don't criticize her. If, you know, she's her father's Palestinian, she's gonna have a feeling that I don't.

Jonah Platt: That's, uh, very magnanimous.

Stuart Weitzman: Nah, it's just reality.

Jonah Platt: Another great initiative, let's call it, that you've been involved with is the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, now known as the Weizmann. What did you love about that museum so much that you wanted to give such a meaningful gift that your name's now on the door?

Stuart Weitzman: You've done your research on me.

Jonah Platt: Oh yeah. We get thorough here.

Stuart Weitzman: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Well, it's a good thing I've been a good husband. Yeah.

Jonah Platt: My, my research associate, Sam, she finds it all.

Stuart Weitzman: I went to Penn, you know, it's, it's the museum there. Have you ever been to it? I haven't yet. It's on the corner of the Liberty Bell and the original U.

S. Constitution. It's called Constitution Mall.

Jonah Platt: Right.

Stuart Weitzman: You cannot. [00:38:00] Get a better location. Yeah, Sidney Kimmel helped make it happen. He's a holly, you know, Kimmel

Jonah Platt: Center?

Stuart Weitzman: Kimmel Center, a few years ago, the bank says it's time to pay the principal. There's no money put aside to accumulate for that. Mm hmm. So we're gonna take the building.

We're gonna build a tower, we'll sell it to a real estate. The man who was desperately trying to find a way to save it, I'd seen what I had done elsewhere, and my name's on the list of Jewish philanthropists somehow, I don't know why. And he tracked me down. I went again to see it, but this time with different eyes.

I thought, gee, what a great location, and it's a wonderful museum. It's the only museum in America on American Jewish history. Right. Many Jewish museums on local Holocaust, etc.

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: But this is national. I got lucky. It didn't cost me anything to save it.

Jonah Platt: What do you mean? I

Stuart Weitzman: Over my [00:39:00] lifetime, I was like a collector of one of a kind items.

Jonah Platt: Okay.

Stuart Weitzman: You know where I'm going, probably.

Jonah Platt: I do. I can stamp some coins, let's say. And I

Stuart Weitzman: had accumulated three one of a kind items, not because they were stamps or coins, but because they were it. There was only one. of each one. I try to buy the Declaration of Independence.

Jonah Platt: There

Stuart Weitzman: are only two outside of the state's legislatures.

Jonah Platt: Nicholas Cage has the other one?

Stuart Weitzman: No, Bill Gates. Then I bought the Inverted Jenny, um, which is a mistake in the stamp.

Jonah Platt: Okay. It's

Stuart Weitzman: the upside down airplane.

Jonah Platt: Okay.

Stuart Weitzman: And then I said, wait a minute, I have an international album, too. And I went to that, and in the top of the front page, most valuable stamp of the world, called, uh, One Cent Magenta.

British Guiana stamp.

Jonah Platt: Okay.

Stuart Weitzman: And they're sitting in museums on loan for years. And they're outI haven't seen them. They're out of my mind. Occasionally there's a [00:40:00] story about them. And then this thing happens in Philly. And I said to my kids, Do you want the stamps and that coin? Daddy, it's your passion. What are we going to do with it?

Give it away to museums because we don't want the problem to What are we going to do with it? I

Jonah Platt: said,

Stuart Weitzman: okay. So I put them all three up for sale. And all the money

Jonah Platt: I love that. That's a great story. Full of great stories, Stuart.

Stuart Weitzman: I don't tell you the bad ones.

Jonah Platt: Something else you're passionate about. What,

Stuart Weitzman: what is that?

Jonah Platt: Sports.

Stuart Weitzman: I love sports. You are a four time Maccabia

Jonah Platt: Games participant and medalist.

Stuart Weitzman: Once a medalist.

Jonah Platt: Once, hey, more than me.

Stuart Weitzman: Last time.

Jonah Platt: In, what was that, 2022?

Stuart Weitzman: Yep, and I'm going this summer for the silver.

Jonah Platt: Okay, and you, it's, this is what, it's table tennis.

Stuart Weitzman: Yeah.

Jonah Platt: It's, as an individual sport, it's a team sport.

Stuart Weitzman: They have doubles, team, and individual.

Jonah Platt: What will you be competing in?

Stuart Weitzman: I don't play doubles.

Jonah Platt: You do the team and the individual. Yeah, I

Stuart Weitzman: bump into my partner too much.

Jonah Platt: So when did you get into table tennis?

Stuart Weitzman: Uh, didn't you play as a kid?

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: [00:41:00] Everybody played as a kid. So all these guys are playing pickleball.

I said, it looks like table tennis.

Jonah Platt: It's like going from regular chess to like the life size chess? Yeah. Table tennis to pickleball. I had a

Stuart Weitzman: pool table. I bought a top, you know, to sit on it. You could play either one. And I started practicing. I said, I'm gonna go to the Maccabi games. I bought a robot. They are amazing.

The ping pong robot is much better than like the table. Forrest

Jonah Platt: Gump only had a wall. You got a robot. Oh, this thing is

Stuart Weitzman: And I trained and trained and trained. Just for the Maccabi games. And I made the team. Now I play for, also for fun, but I, my training was to go To get on the team at

Jonah Platt: Maccabi. And then in the last one, you also got to be the American team flag bearer.

How was that experience? That

Stuart Weitzman: was as cool as anything.

Jonah Platt: Yeah?

Stuart Weitzman: A thousand athletes behind me, all waving little flags. I got the big one. You know how you march into a, it's just like the Olympics. Right, into the stadium. You know, we had 10, 000 athletes, so it's 60 something countries. And I have the whole team behind me, and we march in, in our, you know, alphabetical order.

It is so [00:42:00] exciting. The opening ceremony. It's so thrilling. I mean, you've got 60 countries and you're meeting people, and there, you can't help the camaraderie. Right. And it's not because he's from Serbia and I'm from America, it's because we both go to synagogue.

Jonah Platt: Right.

Stuart Weitzman: You know?

Jonah Platt: We're all one

Stuart Weitzman: tribe. It really was.

Jonah Platt: I'm jealous hearing all these macabre stories, you know, it sounds like a really amazing experience.

Stuart Weitzman: I made a, uh, shidduch

Jonah Platt: there. Oh, yeah?

Stuart Weitzman: Yeah. Who? Well, I saw these basketball team players from Argentina, like 6'2 6'6 hunks. And these American girls, who were swimmers, are looking at them and giggling and looking at them and giggling, and I could tell they were trying to get attention.

They didn't know how to approach, and of course, they speak Spanish and the, you know, English. And I said, uh, Stuart Weitzman. I said, I speak Spanish, you want me to introduce you to those fellas? And shyly, well, I don't want to put you out, but it's Senores, ven aqui. [00:43:00] And I talked to them in Spanish. I said, um, these are three of our most fabulous swimmers, and they were admiring your uniform.

I just made it up. And one guy says, Oh, I speak English. Maybe the other two did too, but he said, I speak English. And then they're all talking and making, She says, Can I trade you uniforms? Which they do at these games. Did you know that? It's sort of a custom. I have the Cuban team's t shirt for table tennis.

They have mine. Can I trade you uniforms? She takes off her shorts, takes them right to him. He can't get it past one leg. She, she, he, she's putting his on, they're swimming on her. Right. And they just, then they went out for cokes.

Jonah Platt: How important is your connection to Israel to you?

Stuart Weitzman: It's in my blood. I laugh for them and I cry for them.

I'm glad I feel that way. And I feel sorry for [00:44:00] Jewish people who don't. Cause it's such a great sensation to have. It really is.

Jonah Platt: Couldn't agree with you more.

Stuart Weitzman: Yeah.

Jonah Platt: I want to talk about UPenn. So we've talked a little bit about your time there, but not in terms of philanthropy. And you went there also. I did.

I went, I didn't go to Wharton. I went to UPenn undergrad, the college. Huh. You've called it your third child. At least that's what I read.

Stuart Weitzman: Yes.

Jonah Platt: Why is Penn so important to you? It

Stuart Weitzman: was my third child.

Jonah Platt: Okay. And now?

Stuart Weitzman: It's trying to work its way back into my heart. Hmm. We have a good president. Mm hmm. Liz McGill is not there anymore.

Right. She was a lovely lady, didn't have the backbone to stand up to what was right. Mm hmm. This guy has been there a long time. Larry Jameson. Yeah, ran the medical school, dean, and top guy, and he's put in rules and been quiet campus.

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: They had a, uh, a professor at Annenberg who painted these horrific Uh, anti Semitic cartoons after the 7th, and they wouldn't fire him.

[00:45:00] I know. But he's not there this semester. Right. I don't know if he'll be there next semester. I'm waiting.

Jonah Platt: You didn't pull your money out.

Stuart Weitzman: Well, I gave a dollar.

Jonah Platt: This year you gave a dollar.

Stuart Weitzman: You know that dollar campaign? Do you know about that? No. It was Mark Rowan's idea. Very clever.

Jonah Platt: Okay. If

Stuart Weitzman: you don't give, they don't know you didn't give.

Right? How would they know? Hmm. But if you send in a dollar,

Jonah Platt: They know you just gave them a dollar.

Stuart Weitzman: You made a statement that they can't miss. So I became part of the dollar campaign, and I stopped any, uh, giving that I had planned on. Oh, wow. And I told them, get rid of that guy, then we can talk. He says, it's not up to me, Jameson.

He said, if I could, I'd like to get rid of him and 20 others, but it's up to the dean of the Annenberg School. And I said, who does she work for? Well, you know who she works for. Him. Yeah, he said me. I said, you know, I don't want to have a riot on [00:46:00] campus. We have to work this out So finally he's gone, right?

He doesn't know if that Dean will bring him back But he doesn't think so because the course has been eliminated from the syllabus,

Jonah Platt: right? And if there's no course, there's no professor. In September of 2023, this was before October 7th, you participated in the Shabbat Together event at the Penn Hillel.

Stuart Weitzman: That's because they had that Palestinian Rights Festival that was just horrendous. That started the whole, Penn started it all.

Jonah Platt: That's right. So, I mean, for those people who don't remember, there was a Palestinian Literary Arts Festival.

Stuart Weitzman: Which could have been fine. Which

Jonah Platt: could have been fine. And maybe Eighty percent of the people on the list to show up were there to do poetry and film and celebrate Palestinian culture.

But then they kind of slid in that ten, twenty percent of sort of pure anti Israel. And

Stuart Weitzman: anti Jewish.

Jonah Platt: And anti Jewish folks, like Roger Waters, who's certainly not Palestinian. Right. And it caused a lot of [00:47:00] controversy. How did you end up showing up right there in that immediate aftermath?

Stuart Weitzman: Well, the head of Hillel said, we're going to have Liz McGill.

Come talk to the Jewish students next week, and we'd like you to also. I said how much time do you want me to talk? Well, we only have 20 minutes and she's gonna have 13 and you can have 7. So there were so many negative comments about her showing up at

Jonah Platt: Hillel.

Stuart Weitzman: The head of Hillel called the administration office and said, We think it's better that she doesn't come.

So I got 20 minutes.

Jonah Platt: Hey! Yeah. How do you feel about the future for Jewish Americans? Because you're someone who's, you're, you're the American dream, you're the Jewish dream, you're proud of both. It's fine.

Stuart Weitzman: We're gonna, we

Jonah Platt: We're gonna be alright.

Stuart Weitzman: Yeah. I don't know anyone directly who's suffered from the increased anti Semitism.

I [00:48:00] read about so many, and I am involved in supporting lawsuits against A lot of universities, so I, I know what's going on other than Penn, but things pass, you know, it's a, we're talking about people who don't know. What makes this different is there are a lot of people in America, especially young people, who got tied into the oppressor oppressed philosophy.

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: And because Jews are successful, we have to be the oppressor. And Palestinians are downtrodden, not because of the Jews who left Gaza 20 some odd years ago, right? But because of the way Hamas treats them. That's who ruled that. That was their own nation for 20 years. No one wants to recognize that, but that's what it was.

And they abused the cement for tunnels instead of hospitals and universities. So they don't know that. But they're not going to even care about it. They can't, they don't understand it. They just know [00:49:00] oppressed, oppressor, and they pick on us. And there are several million Middle Eastern students in our campuses that didn't exist.

20 years ago.

Jonah Platt: Yeah,

Stuart Weitzman: and many many hundred thousands of Middle Eastern professors well supported by Qatar Saudi Arabia also.

Jonah Platt: Mm hmm,

Stuart Weitzman: and they've been planted there a

Jonah Platt: lot of money

Stuart Weitzman: a lot of money in that right and that's the difference today So you can't there's no getting away from that. You just have to fight it with fire, which we didn't do Nor did America do last year.

No. Trump is now fighting it with fire.

Jonah Platt: So you feel like we're on the, on a better trajectory now? Yeah,

Stuart Weitzman: I don't think it's gonna eliminate the way those people think. Just like we're not gonna eliminate the way Hamas thinks.

Jonah Platt: Right.

Stuart Weitzman: But if we can keep them out of the limelight and weakened, that's the most we can hope for.

Jonah Platt: Okay. What do you think is the most important way to instill Jewish pride in young people?

Stuart Weitzman: Comes from the parents.

Jonah Platt: [00:50:00] That's for sure.

Stuart Weitzman: Teach them about the Jewish heritage. They have to do that. When I meet students who went to Jewish camp and are now grown up,

Jonah Platt: Mm hmm.

Stuart Weitzman: or went to, um, Israel for birthright, Yep.

they have a different attitude than, than even my children who didn't do either, which I regret now. Who knew? Because it was, like I said, I grew up in a synagogue. There was nothing to worry about. Right. Hewlett was a synagogue.

Jonah Platt: I think, sort of, the key takeaway is, is intentionality. And we can, it's not something we can take for granted, no matter who we're surrounded by.

If we don't intentionally make it important, it's not going to be important.

Stuart Weitzman: And look at the accomplishments of that start up nation.

Jonah Platt: Yeah.

Stuart Weitzman: And the things they've invented, from the camera that goes in the body to the technology. They're working on hydrogen instead of now other kinds of energy, atomic energy.

It's just amazing. They've won more Nobel Prizes in Israel than all of the Muslim world. How about that?

Jonah Platt: Yeah, not surprised. [00:51:00]

Stuart Weitzman: You think? That nice girl from New Jersey, not Jewish, who's a bit socialist, leftist leaning, always thinking, you know, like Bernie and those people. You think she knows that? Certainly not.

And I wonder if she knew it, if it would matter to her. That's

Jonah Platt: probably the bigger question. Yeah. Alright, well let's end on something a little light hearted. We're gonna do a little lightning round. I'm gonna just throw some, some softballs at ya, and you give me the quick answers. Softballs, not hardballs.

Not hardballs, easy. Favorite shoe you've ever designed.

Stuart Weitzman: The first shoe I won an award for, a bridal shoe.

Jonah Platt: What was so special about it?

Stuart Weitzman: Made out of lace, like a wedding dress. Until then, shoes were made out of, for brides, acetate satin. They glowed in the dark, because the girls didn't pay attention, the dress covered it.

But then, the younger girls were starting to raise the length of their wedding gown. The shoes began to show, and we made this gorgeous pump that was a technological advance, [00:52:00] too, because Laces, cotton. Right. It breaks. Sure. I had to make the same designs out of nylon, which doesn't break. And we made a gorgeous shoe that won my first award.

I remember flying home from London on the Concorde.

Jonah Platt: Hey!

Stuart Weitzman: To be there in time for the event.

Jonah Platt: Well, that'll help you get there.

Stuart Weitzman: That justified it.

Jonah Platt: What's someone you wish you'd had the chance to design for?

Stuart Weitzman: Marilyn Monroe.

Jonah Platt: Mmm. That would've been special. In fact,

Stuart Weitzman: I use her as a model. What

Jonah Platt: do you

Stuart Weitzman: mean? Well, as a muse, let's say, as a muse.

Thinking about

Jonah Platt: what would look great on Marilyn Monroe. If

Stuart Weitzman: Marilyn Monroe would wear that shoe I just sketched, then I know it's going to be a hot party shoe.

Jonah Platt: I love that. Who was the hardest to nail a design for?

Stuart Weitzman: Audrey Hepburn type customer. The chic, classic woman who has so much confidence, she doesn't need the high heel to empower herself.

Because a shoe Can change your personality, can change your life. I mean, I love, uh, Bette Midler. And [00:53:00] our industry is known, is remembered for having said, Give me the perfect shoe, and I will conquer the world. Fortunately for the world, I haven't found that shoe yet.

Jonah Platt: I like that.

Stuart Weitzman: That's Bette Midler.

Jonah Platt: Yeah, that's right.

Who are some of your favorite designers that inspire you?

Stuart Weitzman: Louboutin. And I'll tell you why. A young lady might say, because his shoes are so sexy, which they are. I say, because he does what he loves, what he wants his ladies to wear, and he doesn't care what the fashion is. He just makes them super sexy. And if things are going on in lower heels, or certain cowboy boots, or over the knee boot, he doesn't want his women in them.

He doesn't care. Most designers get caught into [00:54:00] trends, and we try to make sure we get a piece of that action. Right. So I admire him for that. I really do.

Jonah Platt: Sure. Favorite Jewish holiday?

Stuart Weitzman: I love Hanukkah. Because, for some reason, my wife grew up With remember she I mentioned she's in an area where there were not that many people from a suburb of Atlanta

Jonah Platt: Okay,

Stuart Weitzman: her parents I guess to compete with Christmas gave presents every night and that's what We began to do with our kids.

Jonah Platt: Well, you're supposed to get eight of them, right? Yeah,

Stuart Weitzman: and we haven't stopped.

Jonah Platt: Nice. What's your least favorite Jewish holiday?

Stuart Weitzman: The ones I don't know about, I don't pay attention. I mean, I had a friend who used to love the word Shmini Atzeris. I never found out what the heck Shmini Atzeris is.

Jonah Platt: You're the second guest on this show to basically say that same thing.

He's like, I've heard of that. It's fun to say. I don't know what it is.

Stuart Weitzman: I mean, he would say things like, from now until Shmini Atzeris. And I would say, what the hell is that?

Jonah Platt: This is the, the being Jewish special. We [00:55:00] ask this all the time. Challah. Rip or slice?

Stuart Weitzman: I don't know. You got to rip it.

Jonah Platt: There we go. Does anybody

Stuart Weitzman: slice challah?

Jonah Platt: A couple of people slice challah.

Stuart Weitzman: Are they Jewish?

Jonah Platt: I grew up slicing the challah. And, uh, now I'm more of a combo, cause I, I rip and then I slice so I can save some for the French toast the next day.

Stuart Weitzman: Uh huh.

Jonah Platt: So you get a little both. Last question. You've given us so many truisms, but what's one of your sort of favorite nuggets to impart to others?

Favorite business advice, life wisdom, anything?

Stuart Weitzman: Perception. And I believe perception is a ticket to a happy and successful life. When we We would create a product. We would try to give it the best perception we could. When I started my company, I had, aside from making shoes on the red carpet, custom that no one else was doing, I had an idea to launch my product in stores.

I was going to make the most famous shoe in the [00:56:00] mind of a young girl. You know what shoe that is?

Jonah Platt: Tell me.

Stuart Weitzman: I decided I was going to make a real life Cinderella slipper.

Jonah Platt: Mmm.

Stuart Weitzman: A glass shoe with a glass heel, but higher for when she's grown up, because I'm not selling four year olds.

Jonah Platt: Uh huh.

Stuart Weitzman: Now, obviously, the glass is plexiglass, you know, translucent PVC.

Jonah Platt: Mm hmm. And

Stuart Weitzman: the heel is lucite, plexiglass, not glass glass. Right. But the look is the same. And it was really cool. And the editors went nuts over it. I'm gonna get free publicity more than any ad I run. And I opened it up to the showroom. And I'm walking around listening to customers commentary on the shoes the salesmen are presenting.

And I told them, I want you to present this right off the bat. And here's the sales pitch. It's every girl's dream shoe. And not only that, it's 30 less than our leather shoes because of what it's made out of. And I heard [00:57:00] a retailer say, Oh, I don't buy plastic shoes. I heard someone else say the same thing within five minutes.

I took the shoe out of the room. Put it away. Fifteen years later, Disney redid Cinderella on Broadway. Right. I got a call. Could we make the Cinderella shoe for the Broadway show? And I did, and I thought, this is going to get a lot of press. I love that shoe. The editors love that shoe. I'm going to redo it.

But this time, I'm going to price it 50 more than a leather shoe. Because it had its cost, which I had a nice profit on. Why? Because the retailers, the consumer, no longer saw it as a plastic shoe. Right. It was now a novelty shoe.

Jonah Platt: Luxury item. With

Stuart Weitzman: a, a story.

Jonah Platt: Mm.

Stuart Weitzman: And that [00:58:00] was the perception of the shoe. And I used perception everywhere I could, whenever I could.

And I recognize that we are all salespeople, and we have to proceed, be perceived in the best possible way. for whatever the purpose is. And if we do that, I don't see how we can't succeed.

Jonah Platt: Well, you've certainly sold me, Stuart. You're a legend. Thank you so much for being here. This has been so awesome.

Learned a lot from you. I know my audience has. And, uh, thank you for being here.

Stuart Weitzman: Okay, it's been my pleasure.

Jonah Platt: An enormous thank you to Stuart Weitzman for chatting with me today and meeting me here in New York City where neither of us live. Please, please, please make sure to subscribe to the podcast, even if you watch on TV.

Those numbers really help us. And make sure to sign up for our newsletter at www. Jonaplat. com Scroll down to the bottom. You can fill your email in right there. Y'all are the best. I'll see you right back here for the next iconic episode of [00:59:00] Being Jewish with me, Jonah Platt.